Computer systems having multiple processors each with an associated main memory are known in the art and include the class of computer referred to as non-uniform memory access (NUMA) machines.
When a processor in one of these systems requires data from an external memory, for example, a magnetic or optical disk, a call is made to that memory and the requested data is loaded into the main memory of the requesting processor. If the same data is needed by a second processor, then a remote access over the system bus is performed by the second processor to read the data from the main memory of the first processor. If the subject data is required more often by the second processor than the first processor, then system performance is degraded by requiring the second processor to continually perform a remote access, and not transferring the data to the main memory of the second processor. Failure to recognize that the requested data is read only and may therefore be copied to the main memory of the second processor also degrades performance.